This is a gel that goes hard when exposed to heat, and softens again when cooled. This gel, produced by Japanese researchers, could suggest the potential to create new and unique protective clothing.
Takayuki Nonoyama, Jian Ping Gong and colleagues from Hokkaido University were inspired by how proteins remain stable inside organisms that survive and thrive in extreme-heat environments such as hot springs and deep-sea thermal vents.
Normally, heat alters the structure of proteins and breaks their bonds, but the proteins in these thermophile organisms remain stable with heat thanks to enhanced electrostatic interactions such as ionic bonds, the researchers say.
So they developed a polyacrylic gel based on this concept, as they describe in a paper in the journal Advanced Materials.
Check out more details about the gel over at Cosmos.
(Image Credit: Nonoyama, T. et. al, Advanced Materials/ Cosmos)